Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Craig Madden. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Craig , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

Having had many regular jobs I have often gone under the pros and cons of being a business owner. I always come back to a realization that I will always love being a business owner vs having a job because it sped me to have control of my time. I believe that often times people come to resent their job before the time constraints of their work schedule hinders the rest of their life. Having the freedom to take a day off, take my daughter to school, go to the Dr all without having to get it approved is a major boost to my quality of life and, I’m my opinion, is worth more than money

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I became interested in gardening while working as a chef. I became very interested in food history and hope food can tell the tale of human history. This interest in food history quickly drove me to start a garden. Having control of the quality of food for my family was very appealing. Then I got a salmonella recall notice from my local grocery store for something I had just fed my then 4 month old daughter. Within a week I went from one garden box to nine because I was not going to leave the health of my family to the whims of corporate America. It did not take me long to become obsessed with growing food and I began to realize that this was satisfying in a very primal way.. Something about growing food made me feel accomplished and bright new great joy. Before long I was helping friends and family build gardens and saw the same two problems over and over. Either people thought they had a “black thumb “ (which is nonsense, gardening is a skill that has to be learned) or they wouldn’t know what to do with all of the produce they grew and it would go to waste. I have the skill set to help with so if this as a former chef, turned gardener. After this realization, I started yard to table creations. Now we build, maintain, harvest and help teach clients how to cook/preserve the food they grow, have the yard to table aspect. Gardening is great, but without the skills to enjoy the hard earned produce, what’s the point? Caring for fruit trees has become one of the biggest part of my business and one of the most enjoyable, as well. In a nutshell I teach people how we all used to live 150 users ago.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I love this question because gardening science is constantly evolving. I feel like I am in a constant state of reevaluating what I think I know. For meds this is more about humility than anything. Understanding that non of us know everything and having the humility to admit that I was wrong and then make changes without being too emotional about it has helped greatly. As business owners we are constantly being challenged with new information, but being able to resist the desire to be right and instead accept that we are all wrong sometimes is a life lesson we should all spend some time working on.. Right my career in this field I have had many failures and frustrations in the gardens and orchards that I manage and every one of them was an opportunity to learn something. We cannot dwell on failure but can instead focus that energy on growing.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

To put it simply it’s honesty and passion. When people hear me talk about my career I know they can feel my passion and love for what I do. Being true to my beliefs, straight forward with my clients (both in success and failure) and constantly striving to better my craft are all traits that lend themselves to a positive reputation.

Contact Info:

• Website: Yardtotablecreations.com
• Instagram: Yard2table_creations
• Facebook: Yard to table creations